Intuitions

Sam Raimi est un génie ! Une petite ville où l'on peut observer magnifiquement la vie de chacun de ses habitants, un marais, un meurtre. Et une mère abandonnée de trois enfants qui voit des choses dans les cartes qu'elle préférerait ne pas voir. Raimi démêle la mosaïque de soupçons et les interrogations du public "Qui est le meurtrier ?", nous rapproche de l'héroïne fragile et nous cause des frissons agréables ou des chocs cardiaques de première classe dans ses visions et ses cauchemars. Raimi a réalisé son rêve et a tourné un film d'horreur où les rivières de sang ne coulent pas, mais qui ne nous laisse pas respirer jusqu'à la dernière seconde. Son The Gift est un hommage nostalgique à l'école d'Alfred Hitchcock avec des procédés de thriller purs, une mosaïque de personnages clairement définis et une intrigue sophistiquée. Et ce casting ! Si l'identité du meurtrier n'avait pas été révélée vingt minutes avant la fin du film, son final aurait été encore plus tendu et choquant. Et le film aurait été une délicatesse du genre à cinq étoiles. (27/05/2002)

This film is dominated by its top-notch atmosphere dominates. Cate Blanchett gives a brilliant performance, but what Giovanni Ribisi (they worked together in another great film, Heaven) delivers here is something absolutely perfect. His role as a psychopath is amazing. (14/06/2004)

To be honest, this film failed to captivate or entertain me. It’s a standard mysterious thriller that wants to surprise in the end, and fails miserably. The reveal was clear well before it was revealed! It’s not bad, it has too good a cast and director for that, but I think they could have got a lot more out of it. (27/04/2009)

If Cate Blanchett, Giovanni "In-every-role-different-and-always-great" Ribisi and Keanu Reeves had not been in The Gift, it would have been a complete waste of time. Seriously, what everyone sees in this film remains a mystery to me. Sam Raimi is a genius? And what exactly has he done here that is brilliant? Yes, he builds the atmosphere of the town solidly, until one wonders why he has never made anything based on Stephen King, but that's about all I can praise him for. Apart from that, there are a few cheesy jump scares, dreams/visions that are also quite simple and not very impressive, the story is particularly bland and it's no problem at all to figure out who the killer is... And what about the final surprise? I felt like I was watching a special episode of the (pretty terrible) series Beyond Belief. (20/01/2012)

Given that Billy Bob Thornton hasn’t written many scripts, all of them were little gems. And when it is made by an interesting director like Sam Raimi, the guarantee of a quality cross between an interesting idea and unrestrained mainstream is certain. And it is precisely when evaluating Raimi's work that I find myself on shaky ground because surprisingly, he abandoned his typical visual tricks (well, not entirely, as scenes in the woods á la Evil Dead or the bathroom scene can challenge even stronger stomachs) to give maximum space to the actors, who richly reciprocate this "trust." Starting with Cate Blanchett, who seems to be incapable of acting badly, through Keanu Reeves in an atypical role as the antagonist, and ending with Katie Holmes, who compensates for her lack of acting talent in other ways (every viewer should wait for the ending, which, in my opinion, falters a bit, especially in terms of Raimi's delivery, because I guessed what was going to happen about ten minutes beforehand). Just cutting out one scene would make the ending really impactful for me. But that's just a minor criticism of the film, which flows like water, scares, entertains, and most importantly, doesn't fade from your mind after a few days. x (23/07/2005)